TV station "identifies" SF crash pilots: Sum Ting Wong, Ho Lee Fuk, and others

I would chalk this up to more "job" people in this chain of how this happened and not enough "career" people.

The anchor person is probably a "career" type but if you have a producer or a graphics op who don't give a damn, careless crap makes air all the time.

If either the graphics op or a producer had a "career" mentality, it never gets to the anchor's eyes.

 

I don't really see it that way, mostly because this isn't a "quality" issue. Shitty looking stuff can get on-air because of what you're describing, but this is more a case of someone just absolutely not getting that Ho Lee Fuk is obviously fake.

You guys still have graphics ops? We lost them when we went automated a couple of years ago. You lose a solid line of defense without them. Typically the only other person to see a graphic I've built is the director, who usually sees it for a split-second before taking it. It's really working without a net.

 

Sort of. We've gone from 3 to 1 -- but that one is the graphics guru so she sees all. Fortunately, for us, she really cares about the job. I've worked at enough stations that have the most indifferent behind-the-scenes staff.

Gee... stations pay peanuts for some positions and then wonder why the workers don't care after a few months.

 

How does a summer intern get a phone call like that? I assume the NTSB has a press contact who is authorized to speak for the NTSB. Though I can see someone sitting on a phone, getting a call from a TV station saying they received a release from the NTSB and they just want to confirm the names. The intern (out of the loop) figures if the NTSB sent something it was "good" and says "sure."

I do agree that the situation is a case study in how major institutions (the press and government) augment and now rely on low-paid non-invested staffers for roles that can make them and too often break them.

 

I have been wondering the same damn thing....what intern does this?

 

Ever want to catch a TV station when the important people are in meetings? Call from 9-10 am, 1:30-2:30 pm and 5-6 pm. All low level summer interns answering phones at those hours.

 

It's 3 p.m. for a lot of newspapers.

I "can" kind of see this happening with the NTSB. What's it been 10 years since the last passenger jet crash? It's probably a pretty humdrum place, until a crash happens and the place goes from zero to 500 mph in a day.

 

The last previous fatal U.S. commercial accident was the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo in February 2009 that killed 50. That was a month after the Miracle on the Hudson.

 

Do they have a middle linebacker named Jack Mehoff?

 

Hugh Jorgan approves.

 

The NTSB investigates more than just the commercial crashes.

The Alaskan air taxi crash that killed two SC families and the pilot is also being investigated by the NTSB. That 10-fatality crash happened the same day as the SFO one.

It's not like the NTSB staffers only work in the event of commercial air crashes.